S.D. Cal. Finds Litigation Funding Agreement And Materials Are Work Product

On October 20, 2020, the Southern District of California issued an order in Impact Engine, Inc. v. Google LLC (available here). In the order, Judge Bencivengo found that a litigation-funding agreement and related materials were protected from discovery under the work-product privilege: “It is clear these documents were created because of the litigation they will fund. . . . In this case, disclosure of the litigation funding agreement, including the preparatory materials, to the litigation funder, a party to the agreements, did not substantially increase the opportunity for Google, Impact Engine’s litigation adversary, to obtain the agreements. The documents reviewed by the Court included confidentiality provisions regarding the agreements, the terms and the information related to them.”